coming up with a new idea called "driving like shit olympics". no more bland, unprovable statements like "california drivers are the WORST" allowed. whichever state wins every 4 years gets a moonshot-sized public transit investment to get those fuckers off the road
— lauren (@lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com) February 7, 2026 at 12:34 PM
every event is mixed gender but still divided 50/50 along whether the drivers are competing drunk or sober
— lauren (@lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com) February 7, 2026 at 12:44 PM
I have the privilege — and, in modern America, it is a privilege — of not having a drivers’ license. But I think we can all agree that reducing the number of drivers in congested areas by at least 50% would make every day a somewhat nicer one for everyone.
Sponsored by BMW.
— FitnessPizza (@majmimby.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 3:22 PM
this is the only way we get the san francisco to LA train built
— lauren (@lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com) February 7, 2026 at 12:36 PM
you mean San Antonio to Houston, gonna be a win win for my homeland Texas
— zneeley25.bsky.social (@zneeley25.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 12:38 PM
Seems unfair because Houston drivers will just shoot the other drivers
— Irontuna (@irontuna.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 2:36 PM
haha you appear to be unfamiliar with the word "Massholes". and i'm from *New Jersey*, we'd probably be in medal contention but i wouldn't bet on us for the gold
— Doctor Science ❌👑 (@doctorscience.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 12:43 PM
you know if every state sends their worst drivers to a driving olympics the problem just might solve itself
especially when we bury them alive in the cars
— lauren (@lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com) February 7, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Looking forward to 49 states getting silenced
— Jason Kirk (@jasonkirk.fyi) February 7, 2026 at 3:12 PM
I will say that one takeaway from living in a bunch of states is that they are kind of *differently* bad in different places. Though now that we are deeper into the smartphone era maybe it’s converging more.
— dvdrots.bsky.social (@dvdrots.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 3:22 PM
Agreed. E.g. Texas road rage is worse than Louisiana road rage but Louisiana /roads/ are worse than Texas roads.
— Katherine Perkins (@katherineperkins.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 6:40 PM
Much, much more at the link… including news of an international television franchise on the World’s Worst Drivers.
I've lived over a lot of this great nation, and Texas would win this. Many states have terrible drivers, but Texas has the strongest combo of 1) incompetence, 2) ignorance of law, 3) inconsiderateness, and 4) egotistical malice.
— Maxx (@vacant-and-bored.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 12:59 PM
I’m not from Georgia but I have seen on multiple occasions someone near Atlanta stop and drive in reverse on the freeway so I think they are going to be tough to beat
— Etrian Odysseus (@etrian-odysseus.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 12:43 PM
philly and connecticut are both strong contenders but I think new mexico might take home the gold. I've seen someone take a u turn against the light across eight lanes of traffic on cerrillos in Santa fe, and that's not even getting into what goes down on the mountain roads
— margaritavillain (@margaritavillain.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 12:57 PM
Arizona is finally getting that tucson-phx-sedona-flagstaff-vegas high speed rail corridor
— vILLAGE GENIOUS (@suddenlygarmo.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 12:40 PM
War for Ukraine Day 1,444: The Butcher’s Bill from Last Night’s Russian Attack
Chetan Murthy
OK, I’ve driven in NYC and SF. And SF drivers are -waaay- more considerate than NYC. I mean, I likened driving in Manhattan to jousting with the cabbies. -Jousting-. SF ? It’s kinda sleepy. Drivers stop for pedestrians, even when they’re on the sidewalk just …. gesturing in the direction of wanting to cross! Such courtesy!
sab
I have lived all over the country, and California drivers are actually quite good, although they drive too fast, especially into fog.
Southern drivers are fairly awful in whatever state.
I have only once driven through Texas.
Ohio drivers aren’t good but not much below average, although average is a pretty low bar.
frosty
@Chetan Murthy: My brother had a beat-to-shit ’71 Maverick in NYC. It got stolen and put back where they found it, I guess they couldn’t handle the 3-on-the-tree.
A garbage truck customized the left right fender. He slapped an I ♥ NY sticker on the dent and kept driving.
He was fearless. Cab drivers would back off.
SectionH
All drivers are worse since Covid, imo. And I’m older and trying to remind myself to be careful when I do drive. But yeah, Chetan, you’re right about not just SF-NYC, but East Coast vs West Coast in general, previously. California drivers were just the best. I probably brought that assessment down considerably when I actually moved here 20 years ago. (But since I grew up in St. Louis, I pretty much had no prejudice in either direction to begin with.)
Chetan Murthy
@frosty: In the mid-90s I had to drop off a colleague at 42nd St and Bway. I then drove back home (garaged my car on 104th st & Amsterdam) and I did it during rush hour without once having to stop for a light. Every time, I surfed to the front of the pack of cabs, so I could make the light, and keep going, keep going. It was my proudest driving day. Yes, it was completely insane, and I was part of the problem, not the solution.
SectionH
Also for this late night thread, I’m hoping that NotMax is ok. Hawai’i – all the islands – are getting slammed by high winds and surf tonight. Yesterday it was the smaller islands with high surf, but today it’s been a lot of wind – at the higher elevations, including Maui.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@frosty:
I had a ’78 Ford Fairmont that I got from a bud back in the late 80’s for $100 because he had hit a telephone pole just off of the center to the passenger side. That and it wouldn’t start any more for him. I paid him, popped the hood and saw the air cleaner was crooked. Straightened it up and it started. Turned out the screws on the carb base were stripped out and the carb would tip over on turns…lol! I put a couple of bungee cords on it and drove it that way until I sold it two years later for $100.
Another bungee cord held the hood down as the crash wrecked the latch, so it looked like a mess but that old 6 cylinder ran like a clock. I called it The Winter Rat and only drove it in crappy weather. People got the hell out of my way when they saw me coming in the snow.
Damned good cheap car but we moved away from Spokane and didn’t need it any more.
John Revolta
@Chetan Murthy: Catching that green wave is fun. It’s harder to do during the day but then I never drove much during the day…..but later at night when there’s less traffic (There’s never NO traffic) I could start out on 2nd Av up in the 100s and make it all the way to the East Village without having to stop. (This would’ve been back in the ’90s too!)
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’ve driven in New York. And nobody believes me when I assert that driving in Athens makes driving in New York feel like a calm holiday … until they actually see Athens traffic. It’s been a long time since I was in Italy, but the traffic there was worse still if my memory serves.
Seriously, though, drivers in Athens pull moves that’d have a New York driver put into prison. One-way signs are treated as suggestions. Sidewalks are used as passing lanes. And motorcycles and motor scooters? Ye gods and little fishes, a pedestrian isn’t safe anywhere from them.
SpaceUnit
Here in the Denver Metro area we have addressed the problem by building a bazillion dollar light rail transit system that doesn’t actually go anywhere and is only convenient to about 2% of residents.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Also, too, wasn’t there a recent study that showed that congestion charging in New York City reduced traffic strain and congestion throughout the entire metropolitan area, not just the five boroughs?
Chetan Murthy
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: yyep: nysenate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/2025/jessica-scarcella-spanton/real-road-relief-latest-congestion-…
Congestion pricing is having a ripple effect across the tri-state area with less traffic on streets in Manhattan and beyond, according to new data from a major tri-state area research group on Wednesday.
A Regional Plan Association (RPA) report published on June 18 shows that congestion pricing has reduced traffic delays not only within the Manhattan Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ) south of 60th Street — where vehicles are charged a base toll of $9 — but also outside the area.
Craig
@Chetan Murthy: I give you I-880, and the Bay Bridge. My thing about SF is just clueless drivers unable to understand that traffic is a system. I’d rather drive in Manhattan. You gotta pay attention. If you gotta drive in Manhattan or SF and don’t want to get with it, take public transit or a cab. It’s easy. ATL is crazy.
Chetan Murthy
I feel like this isn’t so different from “driving as a system of combat” or “driving as an adversarial sport”. Whereas, the thing I found once I moved to SF, was that drivers just didn’t do that: they were courteous, and kind, and respectful of pedestrians. A small example:
When I lived in NYC, BOS, and Paris, I would never have considered not taking my right-of-way at an intersection when there were already cars there. But in SF? I do it routinely. I walk up to a four-way stop, there’s a car there, and instead of crossing immediately, I wave the car thru and -then- start crossing. Why do I do that? B/c if I started to cross immediately, the car would wait, which would slow him down. If I wave him thru and -then- start to cross, he’ll get thru while I’m crossing, and I’ll only be slowed down by a very little. But why do I do it? B/c drivers here are just -kinder- than they were in NYC & BOS.
I cannot agree with the idea that all drivers need to be totally on-the-ball and ready for maximum combat at all times: I lived that way in NYC, and hell, I -enjoyed- the hell out of it. But it’s not a humane system.
ETA: obvs. these aren’t light-controlled intersections: they’re just four-way stops.
Chetan Murthy
@Chetan Murthy: Also, as I get older, I start to feel that a less -tight- traffic system is simply necessary for older drivers. Their reflexes and attention-spans are going to drop over time, and demanding that they all have the reflexes and focus of 30-year-olds is just unrealistic. And by “older drivers” I mean 50-year-olds, not 70-year-olds. I noticed that my reflexes and attention were already reduced by that age: I cannot believe that somehow I was an outlier in this.
sab
@Chetan Murthy: I cry ageism!
Driving shouldn’t demand Olympic level athletic ability.
If people would just obey the laws (speed laws and signage) it wouldn’t be that difficult to drive safely even if old.
I do think that the one change that keeps old people on the roads was power steering. My grandmother ( born 1895) quit driving when she was too weak to steer. That doesn’t happen any more.
Now old people stop driving when their vision fails.
SectionH
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Maybe I’m Nobody Too, but I’ve been in Athens a few times, and No Way I’d try to drive there. No more than I’d try to drive in Tokyo.
AFAIK, the congestion charge in London has been quite successful. (I’ve driven there back in the day, before that.) I think that gave NY the guts to try it themselves.
Chetan Murthy
@SectionH: I enjoyed the little bit in that article about the Staten Island elected official complaining that the Manhattan congestion charge was causing people to drive thru Staten Island more, worsening air quality there. Haha, lady, you could always implement your own congestion charge on Staten Island, yanno? Oh, but what you want, is to be able to drive thru Manhattan -from- Staten Island, and implementing your own congestion charge for SI would get in the way of that, yeah, yeah, I know, life’s tough.
DivF
@Chetan Murthy: This. Or perhaps it is the case that, as I’ve grown older (74 this year) I take that extra second to take in the more comprehensive view of my situation, and drive a little more cautiously (and safely) as a result. Besides, I’m just not in that big a hurry these days, so I’m not looking to shave fractions of a second off my drive time.
NotMax
@SectionH
The winds, while strong, not nearly as brutal as what we had a week ago Tuesday. Currently it’s the rain and chilly temps from a front stalled over Maui, not expected to move off until sometime Monday.
Overnight temps in my area of the island predicted to be in the mid 50s, with a possibility of brushing the high 40s before the storm moves off. Daytime highs in the 60s.
DivF
@NotMax: chilly for your neck of the woods. But still beats the temp of 2 degrees in NYC right now.
Ten Bears
All I can say about here is there are better roads in Mississippi, and better drivers in Mexico City. For those in the know there are better roads (and drivers) on the Rez
NotMax
@DivF
It’s all relative. Central heating and insulation rarer than hen’s teeth here. Ditto for cold weather clothing.
;)
Mel
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
My first car was an AMC Concord with a sunflower yellow paint job and a brown roof. It had over 80,000 miles on it when my father helped me buy it as a total loss. It was a hideous beast, drove like a tank, and had funky dark stains on the carpet, steering wheel and left side of the dash that just would not come out no matter how much we cleaned. The price was right, though, and a friend who had an auto body shop repaired it for cheap.
I can testify that an AMC Concord can accommodate 8 teenaged girls, a Collie, and two large coolers, and can survive accidentally being driven down 1/4 mile of railroad tracks, and getting submerged up to the wheel wells in a flooding creek.
The car always gave a couple of my friends the creeps because we periodically would smell wafts of what smelled like cigarette smoke, and one of my friends always swore that she heard whispering in her ear on long trips when she sat in the passenger seat. The rest of us loved that car, though, and we named it The Bumblebee and put bee stickers all over the bumper.
The dashboard clock was forever stuck at 7:32. My body shop friend tried to fix it, and had several mechanics also try to fix it, and an engineering student that I was dating tried to fix it as well. No matter what anyone did, it would always stop again at 7:32 .
Years after I traded that car in, one of my high school friends saw it in a grocery store parking lot, and was amazed that it was still on the road. She called my father to tell him that The Bumblebee was still alive and kicking. He said, “Well, maybe the fellow who died in it is looking after the old thing.”
WHAT?!?
It turns out that he “forgot to mention” ( for the four years that I had the car and for nearly a decade after) that someone had been killed in the accident that caused it to be classed as a total loss. The stains? Uh…yes. The time of the accident? Just after 7 :30 pm, according to the accident report.
I’m not usually a superstitious person, but considering some of the frighteningly idiotic teenage antics that we got up to, I sometimes wonder if the whispering smoker was looking after us as well.
sab
I just started reading the first chapter of Moby Dick by Ishmael, and OMG I don’t think I can finish the chapter much less the whole book.
opiejeanne
@Craig: I still have nightmares about riding in a friend’s car on the 880 between Castro Valley and Oakland because of how she tailgated, and she wasn’t the only friend who did that. Driving on the 880 through San Jose I saw terrible things that somehow didn’t end in a crash.
Driving into SF from Castro Valley was not so bad, but while we lived there a lot of pedestrians were mowed down crossing streets by red-light runners. One was an ER doctor married to Jackie Speier. She was the US Representative from District 14, after Leo Ryan was murdered during the Jonestown massacre. (They shot her 5 times on the runway and she played dead.)
Rusty
Having come back to New England 6 years ago, I grew up in CT but left for upstate NY for 22 years, I can say the term Masshole is well earned. Because New Hampshire is a destination for tax free shopping and recreation, I deal with them on a daily basis. I93 and I95 are treated as race tracks to get to their ski condos or lake cottages, every other week the state police report the results of stings where they pick up dozens of cars going over 90mph and there are always a handful well over 100mph, with at least one going 115-120mph. A surprisingly high percentage are Massholes. On lesser roads they aggressively tailgate even when there are 30 cars in front of you on a two lane, and when two lanes merge to one, they always seem to be the jerk that won’t do the every other, zipper merge.
That said about Massholes as a group, CT wins for absolute worst individual drivers. Now that I am back and regularly travel through CT on the way to NYC and beyond, the hyper-aggressive high speed weaving on I84, I91 and the Merrit Parkway is something to behold. You can in a middle lane, keeping up with traffic and doing nothing, when suddenly a car comes blasting across 4 lanes of traffic from the far right to far left, cutting so close that the wind from their vehicle causes your car to rock. What nice shots of adrenaline to get on a long trip. The shear, fuck you get out of way, is something to behold. So CT wins individual gold, where MA wins team gold!
opiejeanne
@sab: It was an assigned book when I was a Junior in HS, and I finally gave up just past the midpoint. I skipped a bunch of chapters, and went on to the last 5 or 6, and still managed an A on the exam. I don’t mind reading long books. I read “Steppenwolf” and “Crime and Punishment” without a hitch, although I did have to create a reference page for the Dostoyevsky to sort out the cast of thousands and people with similar names, but Moby Dick defeated me. I keep thinking I’ll go back and read it, maybe when I’m 90.
opiejeanne
@Rusty: That cutting across all the lanes on a wide freeway is one of the things I saw in San Jose, driving there after dark. The car entered from a ramp and just zipped across all the lanes, lost control and spun, ended up facing the wrong way. I was back just far enough that I saw him start to slide, slowed way down while other cars zipped past me and then had to dodge the idiot.
The tail lights were very pretty all lit up like that. Everyone just stopped and waited for him to get his car facing the right way. Amazing that no one hit him. I really hated driving through San Jose.
Pete Downunder
@opiejeanne: I got past the first sentence of Moby Dick but only just. Likewise I found out from Dickens that it was the best of times and the worst of times and decided I did not need to know why. As attributed to Mark Twain a classic is a book everyone wants to have read but nobody wants to read.
p.a.
@Rusty: I’ve always felt Mass drivers get a bad rap. If you go in knowing they’ll make an aggressive move whenever one is even potentially available, you’ll be fine.
Totes agree on CT. I’m not a mind reader or psychologist, but “entitled” comes to mind.
SectionH
@NotMax: Glad to see you’re ok and still have power. I srsly didn’t know how bad the wind was last week. That much rain doesn’t sound like fun though. Good luck.
SectionH
@Pete Downunder: But Sam Clemens wrote rather easy-to-read stuff, didn’t he?
Shinobi42
Texas and California both coming in shook when St. Louis takes the gold. Seriously the shit people pull here is insane – in part because you could not do it anywhere there were more cars.
Pretty much daily I am passed by 2-4 cars doing 100+ in a 60 in a busy urban area. I have had cars behind me at a light cut me off making a left. I also recently got screamed at for honking at a guy who was going the wrong way down a one way.
And many drivers do not have legal plates because the vehicle tax system in Missouri is so so convoluted and expensive.
Sometimes I miss Chicago traffic.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Mel:
A haunted car! It’s good that dad held that part back so you could use the car while he figured out when it was time to tell you some ‘car history’ of sorts.
Maybe the guy died at 7:32… ;)
SiubhanDuinne
@Mel:
What an amazing story! That one’s going to stay with me for a while.
Baud
A Trump district but a hold on the seat.
SiubhanDuinne
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
And now I’m going to have “My Grandfather’s Clock” as an earworm for the rest of the day!
MagdaInBlack
Being on the intake end of bad driving, I have spent a lot of time in our lots looking at damaged vehicles thinking “how the f did they manage that?”
And my collision repair motto: bad drivers have kept me living indoors for 25 years.
opiejeanne
@Pete Downunder: My Dickens misery was “Great Expectations”, another assigned book in HS. I got through most of it, but was running out of time to finish so I picked up the Cliff Notes version and discovered that I hadn’t missed much. I finished reading it after the exam but felt like it had too many words.
Just look at that parking lot
@sab: Forget the book or you may forgo reading ever again. Get it on audio. Listen to it driving (but according to the posts here, not in SF,NYC, Houston,Mexico City,Hanoi, etc.). Ok, then, to be safe, just skip listening in the car. On the treadmill , watching your chili in the slow cooker, on hold with Medicare,places like that. And not all at once. Space it out over a year, at least.
God help thee Captain Ahab.
ET
you are all forgetting that the Olympics is a global event.
Sorry, but matched against Italy, Mexico, or even Chile (that I know) no US state has a shot at podium.
prostratedragon
@sab:
“Corlears Hook,” by accordionist Tony Kovatch
satby
India, people. Try driving or even being a passenger in New Delhi. My hometown Chicago is cited frequently as a frightening place for out-of-towners to drive in (it’s not), and I’ve driven in almost every other place in the US cited above. New Delhi is a special kind of chaos I would never consider driving in and as a passenger I just ride and surrender my fate to the powers that be. Once on the way to a wedding with two other American women who were terrified, I told them somehow I had never seen a crash, and as soon as the words left my mouth another taxi hit ours. The drivers never even got out of the cars. Much cursing and insults in Hindi were traded and we all went on our was. Surreal.
J.
No contest: Massachusetts drivers, particularly those in the Boston area, are the worst — and I grew up and learned to drive in Manhattan/NYC and have lived in various states, including MA. As one of the posts above stated, they’re called Massholes for a reason. Also, pretty sure MA is the only state that considers the shoulder another lane. Crazy.
stinger
@opiejeanne:
When you are 90, you will think, “Nah, life is too short,” and you’ll pick up a book you actually want to read.
Just look at that parking lot
There’s a 1960 Twilight Zone episode title People Are Alike All Over. It sums up my response to the question of “Where are the world’s worst drivers ?”
Barbara
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: You have to separate the drivers from the traffic conditions. Your driving isn’t really tested on empty roads in rural places. I was driven from Alexandria Egypt to Giza last summer and decided it was a testament to the driver’s skill and endurance that the he was still living. If it’s worse somewhere else I don’t want to go there.
And we ended up in Athens, but the center city was closed to traffic for a bike race so we had to take Metro.
catclub
@J.: I appreciate aggressive, competent drivers.
If that is what you call massholes, I am ok with that.
The worst drivers are the ones who do not claim the right of way when it belongs to them. They are dangerous.
I would say that the variance is much higher in the south than in the north. Variance both in speed range and competence range.
Barbara
@stinger: It would make a good MediumCool post — the great or at least well-regarded books you were supposed to like but couldn’t finish. My contender: Ulysses by James Joyce and anything by Julian Barnes. I’ve tried, I swear!
Matt McIrvin
The Masshole characteristic is being pushy and aggressive, tailgating, and a chronic addiction to passing on the right, even when there’s a wide-open lane to the left, and sometimes on the right shoulder. (There’s a section of 93 where the right shoulder becomes a legal traffic lane during weekday rush hour only; naturally this gets used out of schedule all the time.) They’re also quick with the horn in situations where it couldn’t possibly do any good. You sometimes do see excessively timid drivers who won’t take the right of way here, but not with any great frequency.
randy khan
As someone who lives in the D.C. area, where there are drivers from all over, I have found myself gravitating towards the position in the dvdrots post, that every state has uniquely bad drivers. In D.C., that means we get all of the state idiosyncrasies on the road at the same time, which is not pretty in bad weather of any kind.
Matt McIrvin
@catclub:
More like delusions of competence. You pretty often see people joyriding at 25 mph above the general flow of traffic, weaving around all the other cars like they’re standing still. Closely related, the serial aggressive tailgater who seems weirdly averse to actually passing the car they’re tailgating even when there’s an opening.
Cliosfanboy
As an Ohio native, I would say Michigan drivers were the worst. My wife is from New Hampshire, so she would insist it’s Massholes. Now that we live in northern Virginia, we can see how bad Maryland drivers are. Clearly, it’s states starting with the letter “M” that are the problem. (Looking at you, Montana and Mississippi!)
Cliosfanboy
@randy khan: Especially in snow. Northern drivers are used to driving in worse snow and ice, so they are overconfident, while southern drivers are panicking and being far too timid.
p.a.
@Matt McIrvin: When I drive home from GF’s house at night, 495S briefly to 95S to Pvd, no Mass staties ever (except accidents.) If they sat that 20 mile route at night, they could finance 1/2 the state’s yearly budget.
Trivia Man
@Chetan Murthy: One of my highlights was about 1990. Never been to NYC but a friends brother was moving from DC to attend Columbia. Brother had bad eyesight, friend had outstanding tickets in a couple states so i volunteered.
The biggest U Haul you can get without a CDL, id never driven anything bigger than a van. DC to NYC, GW Bridge, street parking about 125th, unload a giant truck with only 2 other men.
No accidents, tickets, injuries, or thefts. It was a fun adventure.
Thor Heyerdahl
Cairo and Bali are places with drivers that I personally believe are podium contenders
Trivia Man
@frosty: When i drove a 20 year old rust bucket in LA in the 80’s, i had occasion to often drive through Beverly Hills. Nobody lets you into traffic, ever. So just aim in front of the most expensive car you see and creep in playing chicken. As everyone inches along they always bluster. But always gave up and let me in.
They all probably assumed even if i were insured it wouldn’t be enough to replace a hub cap of theirs.
Trivia Man
@SectionH: I miss nj drivers. In heavy small city traffic, they will let you in – merging, turns, leaving a parking lot or side street. But they won’t wait. They offer and you accept immediately and start moving or – the offer is rescinded and they fill the gap.
Game recognizes game and if you are aware and alert – y’all can work together for efficient flow.
Trivia Man
@Mel: A+ story, would read again. I hope you shared that reveal with the other 6 girls.
kindness
I grew up driving the greater NY area. New England, NJ & Pennsylvania. Hands down the worst, most aggressive drivers are in Boston.
dnfree
@SectionH: I knew someone who had occasion to drive cross-country frequently, and she claimed that the switch from courteous to rude and entitled drivers occurred partway across Ohio. She had it narrowed down to which town the change occurred in, but I don’t recall the name of the town. (Courteous drivers were west of the line, and rude ones to the east.)
ironcity
@dnfree: DC area is interesting. People from all over bringing their regional and personal characteristics with them. Used to seeing lots of out of state plates near touristy places and watching out for them to do boneheaded/ distracted things. But not all out of state tags are tourists because military can keep the plates for their home of record, so many cars with FL, TX, and other tags really are “locals”.
Outside of NOVA, and maybe the Tidewater, Virginia has some pretty mannerly drivers it has seemed to me in terms of letting people in and being somewhat nice. My standard of comparison is Western Pennsylvania, where it can be aggressive and dodging potholes.
Aaron
In the early 1990s, New Jersey gave me a license to drive after failing the parallel parking test after 3 or so tries. Apparently, I could have failed another test and still gotten my license. On the plus side, I’m great at traffic circles… I thought, then I moved to DC and lost my mind the first time I saw 30 or so traffic lights on a circle.
Moral of the story: don’t teach someone how to parallel park in a Suburban. (My dad was originally from central PA, if you’re taking notes.)
russell
A few years ago, my wife and I traveled to Italy. I had heard that drivers there were particularly bad, so I googled around to see what I was in for.
One website said “Driving in Italy is about like driving in Boston”. So ever since I have considered Boston to be the international standard for bad driving.
I’ve lived near Boston for the last 40+ years, prior to that I lived in Philly and New York. New York drivers drive crazy fast and insanely close to each other, but generally stay in their lane and observe traffic law. Philly drivers are pretty aggressive, but are not totally nuts.
Boston drivers are not that much more aggressive than either New York or Philly folks, but they are utterly unpredictable. Left turns from the right lane are totally normal. Traffic laws are treated as gentle but generally ignorable suggestions.
ironcity
@Aaron: Maryland fixed that problem and does no require parallel parking in their in car driving test, had too many failures, I was told.
When I learned a number of years ago the Pennsylvania/ Driving tests were given at the state police barracks by real no lie state troopers with smoky bear hats and .38s on their hips, and they meant business all the way. Maryland had examiners who were very reasonable.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@opiejeanne: IIRC Dickens got paid by the word (serialized books).
Tehanu
My late husband was a rather aggressive driver, though not a road-rage one. I learned this when we were in Rome and shared a cab with some people from the Midwest; when we got to our destination, they piled out saying it was the scariest experience they’d ever had in a car, whereas it felt perfectly normal to me!
glc
@sab: If you work at it you’ll reach the chapter about whales.
Since you’re not going to get through that, it’s an achievable goal.
If you want.
… On the other hand, there’s nothing to stop you from reading “Bartleby the Scrivener” straight through, which should be enjoyable and also provide a useful perspective
— Unrelated, but while I’m here: bitcoin vs. Jesus Christ
Anonymous At Work
And no one has mentioned Florida? You other states merely sniff at the stench of Snowbird drivers; we marinate in them half the year. Our worst drivers aren’t even ours; our worst drivers are where the worst of the worst come to drive freely.
Also, we don’t worse drivers than a lot of places, but we have a more volatile mix of Grey Dawn types who learned on Model Ts and Daytona Rejects, who think that every trip behind the wheel is an audition for NASCAR.
(And I grew up in Texas. Too many types in Texas believe that the rules don’t apply to them, plus they drive shiny, giant, extra long, extra wide white… …pickup trucks, with absolutely no obvious compensation involved)
mrmoshpotato
My eyesight would like a word with you.
Paul in KY
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I think Athens, Greece driving is in another league from ‘American’ driving.
Paul in KY
@Mel: Freaky!
Paul in KY
@opiejeanne: I had to do ‘Bleak House’. There’s a happy read…
Paul in KY
@satby: Like Greece, another league.
Paul in KY
@Thor Heyerdahl: Once again, different league.
Paul in KY
@dnfree: Canton!
Paul in KY
@Anonymous At Work: I lived in Homestead for 3 years and saw some whacky driving up in Miami area. Combo of tourists who had no idea where they were going, elderly drivers and hothead Hispanics made for some interesting times.
Reverse tool order
There is a serious fraction of fools everywhere. I held a class A license for nearly 50 years and am only half joking when I say it’s also about suicide prevention. One vivid example back in the ‘70s:
Westbound on the I-80 bypass northwest of Sacramento, just before the exit to I-5 (north-south). Three lanes 90 degrees to my left I see a white car suddenly slowing down, leaving my view. Next view is in my driver’s side mirror.
Angling about 15 degrees right and under the transfer trailer I’m pulling. I see trim pieces flying off and contact with the duals on the rear trailer axle. At the last fraction of a second he steered parallel and I steered right to little effect 55 feet back. We both pull over to the shoulder.
There’s black scuffing front to back on the car and on the 11.00-22.5 truck tire plus minor scratches on the outer wheel. The driver’s wife is petrified in the passenger seat. Turns out he was attempting to cross five lanes to make the exit southbound towards L A. Would have made it on the shoulder, except for the 65 foot five axle truck and trailer in the way.
It seemed obvious to me he was completely at fault, so we traded contact info and left without CHP involvement. My education continued when his insurance contacted the company I drove for, threatening to sue for passing on the right. My boss made me write back explaining what happened and they declined to back their client claim. So, get the police out, but that’s not enough. Much later, I learned you can’t assume they will be diligent about the facts on the ground. That’s another unpleasant story though.